Workforce Bulletin

The wildfires moving through Southern California have destroyed communities and displaced countless individuals. While the nation’s first responders are tirelessly working to contain and neutralize the devastation, many employers are grappling with how best to provide support for their affected employees.

Disaster Assistance to Employees

Employers may consider offering the following disaster assistance directly to employees:

• Qualified Disaster Relief Payments: Under Section 139 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), employers operating in states such as California, receiving FEMA assistance can make tax-free qualified disaster relief payments directly to impacted employees. The payments can be made for reasonable and necessary personal, family, or living expenses as a result of a qualified disaster. Funeral expenses as a result of a qualified disaster will also qualify under these payments. However, employers should be aware that these payments do not cover income replacement payments or expenses reimbursed through insurance of FEMA grants.
• Charitable Emergency Funds: Employers may provide tax-free emergency funds to employees through related 501(c)(3) charities and foundations. The specific rules and requirements for these 501(c)(3) entities, including whether and to what extent contributions are deductible, differ depending on whether the entity is an employer-sponsored public charity, an employer-sponsored private foundation, an employer-sponsored donor advised fund, or an unrelated public charity.

Section 603 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“Section 603”) implements changes to catch-up contributions and is applicable to employers who maintain a 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) plan with participants who are age 50 and older and whose income from the prior year exceeded $145,000. Section 603 requires that catch-up contributions must be made as Roth contributions (i.e., after tax basis) for those earning more than $145,000. Originally, Section 603 was set to become effective starting in 2024. However, on August 25^th, 2023, in response to many industry groups urging for an ...

Employers that are fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans (such as 401(k) plans) subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (‘Plans” and “ERISA”, respectively) should be pleased with the position taken by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) in an information letter dated June 3, 2020 (the “Letter”) addressing the use of private equity investments in designated investment alternatives offered in Plans.  The DOL states that, subject to the standards and considerations set forth in the Letter (and summarized ...

[Updated on April 17, 2020]

As temporary layoffs and furloughs become more prevalent during the COVID-19 outbreak, employers have been asking whether they may allow employees to take hardship distributions under their Section 401(k) plans for expenses and losses resulting from COVID-19.

Under the IRS hardship distribution final regulations, employers were permitted to add a new safe harbor hardship category that would allow an employee to take a hardship withdrawal to cover expenses and losses (including loss of income) incurred by the employee on account of a disaster declared ...

When deliberations began regarding the first tax reform legislation in over thirty years, many raised concerns that tax reform measures would adversely affect retirement savings programs such as the 401(k) plan.  Now, as the tax reform proposals have become further vetted, the 401(k) approach to pre-tax retirement savings appears to remain intact and may actually survive “Rothification”.  The IRS also recently increased the 401(k) pre-tax savings contribution limit to $18,500 for 2018.  Despite the confirmed importance of retirement savings vehicles such as the 401(k ...

While Congress’ attention has most recently been focused on the American Health Care Act, that bill will most likely not be the only proposed legislation that Congress will consider in 2017. It appears that a tax reform plan (the “2017 Tax Proposal”), which could also have a wide-reaching impact, is also on the agenda.

If the 2017 Proposal includes provisions relating to defined contribution retirement plans sponsored by private employers, such as 401(k) plans, the impact will be felt by employers and investment managers, as well as by plan participants. While the Trump ...